Gro Harlem Brundtland

Gro Harlem Brundtland (2 April 1939-) was Prime Minister of Norway from 4 February to 14 October 1981 (succeeding Odvar Nordli and preceding Kare Willoch), from 9 May 1986 to 16 October 1989 (succeeding Willoch and preceding Jan Syse), and from 3 November 1990 to 25 October 1996 (succeeding Syse and preceding Thorbjorn Jagland). She was a member of the Norwegian Labor Party's moderate wing.

Biography
Gro Harlem Brundtland was born in Oslo, Norway, the daughter of former government minister Gudmund Harlem. Brundtland studied medicine in Oslo and at Harvard and became a Medical Officer of Health in Oslo. A member of the Norwegian Labor Party, Brundtland served as Minister for Health and Social Security from 1965 to 1967 and Minister for the Environment from 1974 to 1979, and she became Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in 1975; it was not until 1977 that she entered the Storting. Brundtland became party leader in 1981, when she also became the country's first female prime minister. She led a minority government during her first two periods in office, but she nevertheless managed to introduce several controversial economic reforms to reduce the ountry's budget deficit. She became a leading spokeswoman on issues regarding the environment, the equality of women, and international cooperation, and she introduced the concept of "sustainable growth" at the UN World Commission of Environment and Development in 1987. Her report was widely received, and it triggered the 1992 environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro. She was also a driving force behind the 1995 UN Women's Conference in China. She was a passionate advocate of Norway's participation in the process of European integration, though her application for entry was rejected in a referendum in 1994. Despite this political blow, her popularity remained high at home and abroad. Her 1996 resignation came as a surprise, and she worked as a consultant for Pepsi and for several non-governmental organizations. In 2011, she narrowly escaped assassination by far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 Labor Party youth members on the island of Utoya just two hours after she left.